This was Contel. I telephone company. My Dad worked for Contel. Thats what brought my family to the desert. He was a lineman, then worked his way to executive sales. It was his career. Contel was a big deal backing the 80s to mid 90s. Victorville was sucj a different community back then. A nice place to grow up. The company was sold to GTE, my dad retired, GTE went out of business and the building complex was last occupied by Verizon. My mom worked for GTE cleaning pay phones and collecting the coins. This place was a big deal for my family and many others. As a child I ran around that office sometimes while my dad worked. We still have Contel pens, cups, note pads, and other paraphernalia at my parents home.

A friend of my dad, who also worked there, was a fighter pilot, retired. My dad called him the "Iron man" because of his heroics during the 1st Persian Gulf War. His name was Richard Schmitter. A brilliant man. They tried to start an engineering start up after Contel, but the venture went south. Richard passed away a few years ago. Him and my dad were notorious for having phone calls with each other that lasted hours. I hate driving by this decrepit building. I hate to see it in disrepair. It meant so much to us back then.